The Importance of an Image

In the modern world, it seems to be in a band your image must be as good if not better than the musical content. I admit myslef that for me to really be into a band they must look good onstage and when you see them grouped together, however there are many bands who I like that don't portray a certain trendy image (Sigur Ros, The Others, Ben Folds) . At present theres a huge wave of super trendy bands whos music is nowhere near as good as the way they think they look and there are way too many people that are falling for it. Maybe you can trace it way back to when The Beach Boys all wore matching shirts or when The Beatles all wore grey suits, its an image which isn't offensive and makes them look like a band.
Too many indie scensters dress to be in a band instead of playing decent music. Surely the whole point of calling yourself indie is to be INDEPENDANT and free.
People like Ray Davies, Joe Strummer, John Lydon and to the modern day Peter Doherty and Dom Masters didn't work that hard at trying to change the music scene, fashion scene and political scene just so prats like Brandon Flowers and Ricky Wilson could prance around the top 10 in their eye liner and shitty blazers making the most innofensive boring regurgetated piece of shit music ever. Maybe people feel they need to belong, maybe they feel the need to look like someone else to fit in, all I'm saying is that a little diversity wouldn't go amiss. Just look at The Traders, who could you really pidgeon-hole into one particular branch of fashion/music, theres so many influences within the group its hard to see where exactly those influences do come from.
Offend, antagonize, shock, repulse and provoke. Do it your own way not the trendy way.

By Ben.